Ecco stoves, does anyone have experience of one?

Hi, We have been looking at various options to heat a barn conversion. We have used wood burners as our sole heating for 20 years in both a live in vehicle and an old, badly insulated house. We are about to convert a barn and want to stick with a wood system as wood is something we can access, but we would like a system that is more efficient. We are out at work all day so we are not able to keep feeding a wood burner through the day. We thought a batch burning system such as a masonry stove or Ecco stove might work better for us and get more efficiency out of the wood.
does anyone have any experience of using either? They are very expensive options. Are they all they are cracked up to be? Is there any other system anyone would recommend for heating what will hopefully be a well insulated, open plan barn with a high ceiling in one part (we are concerned about this aspect)
The barn is open plan, one floor with a mezzanine. Approx 100m2 including the mezzanine.

Where in the world are you? Just the general region. Or, how cold are your winters? How long does your cold last?

I bet she is in England ...

Ecco stove is a Masonry heater ...

Our History

The Ecco Stove masonry heater story began in Finland after my co-director and I had been building Finnish polished soapstone appliances manufactured by a company named Nunnaunni.

https://eccostove.com/usa/

Maybe an alternative to building a RMH.

Hi Kirsten,
Welcome to Permies!

Specific to your question... no I don't have any direct experience with those stoves, but I am familiar with masonry stoves in general. And I definitely think that is the way to go for your description of the area. To try to heat that much air would take a lot of fuel, no matter what sort of heater you use. A masonry heater will allow for radiant heat which will help warm you without needing to warm the air first. The stove you pointed out is a nice one and I'm sure would do well... it is also expensive as you mentioned. There is a device called a Rocket Mass Heater which combines the idea of a mass from the masonry heaters with the high efficiency burning of a rocket stove. We have an entire forum dedicated to them. I would check it out. They can be quite inexpensive to build.

https://permies.com/f/260/rocket-mass-heaters

I would like to encourage you with the insulation. If you have not already completed it... to look at some of the vapor permeable wall systems (or as us lay people call them, breathable). Many modern buildings are sealed against everything and it is a recipe for bad air and mold growth. I think you will be much better off with something that allows humidity to dry from either side.

Thanks for the help and advice!  
We are in Cumbria, North West England (mostly wet😄 sometimes cold)
If anyone has any direct experience of using the Ecco stove it would be great to hear it. I’ve heard very conflicting opinions on them!
We are definitely going to go in for breathable insulation and insulation will be a focus as our current home isn’t well insulated at all, being old. Thanks for the pointer to the rocket stoves, I’ve heard a bit about them but would definitely like to learn more. Our only concern about building something ourselves is that the barn we will be converting will be on a 99 year lease from an estate and we may be required to have heatas certification as part of the lease (maybe not as my parents lease from the same estate and didn’t bother when they did their conversion and it was never a problem) we are waiting for the terms of the lease so we don’t know as yet.

Just re-read and there is obviously a difference between a rocket stove and a rocket mass heater. I’ll check it out, thanks.

If you were to build a rocket mass heater with a tall brick bell near the middle of the space, you could get a constant low-grade warmth that would permeate the space and make it feel dryer, even when you didn't need significant heating.

For a space where the heating needs will hardly ever be intense and continuous, an 8" J-tube combustion core would be simple to build, not need frequent firing, and give a decent amount of heat per load. You might end up running it for an hour or two per day in chilly weather.

I forgot to mention, we need it to do our hot water too (most of it anyway) we are a family of 3